Outta Here – We Hope!

It was starting to look like the Web Bridge had got us captured, we had been there for so long! But we’re outta here, or so we hope, as we are not totally out of trouble yet. It has been such a saga.

TIE entangled in the Web Bridge!

Spectacular Web Bridge and Take It Easy at night.

As you have probably gathered, the journey we take as live-aboards is not all sunshine, following winds, fair seas and sundowners. It is not always fun, nor is it always easy. We love it when it is all these things, but sometimes it is not. It can be utter joy, bliss and contentment, but it can also be frustration, disappointment and annoyance. We have had more than our fair share of the latter since coming back from France. So here is where we are up to.

We have our new sails all fitting well now and a very handy sun shade looking very orange for stifling hot days at anchor. Boat builder Gary Groenewald has made us a housing for the Raymarine navigation gear. At dawn on Wednesday, we finally left the Yarra’s Edge Marina bound for Queenscliff at the entrance of Port Phillip Bay, where we are about to swap our dodgy outboards for brand spanking new ones.

Box made, instruments to come!

Hopefully that sort of behaviour is over for a while!

Bye Bye Melbourne!

As for the navigation instruments, the installation did not go to plan on Sunday. All the new cabling is done, however a corrupted charts card, the wrong plug for the sounder, the unit not seeing our radar have all meant the Raymarine multi function screen is not in yet. Brook from B.B. Marine Electrics will now meet us at Queenscliff on Friday to sort things out. Nothing ever goes like clockwork on a boat but this has been particularly irritating. We must say though that Brook is doing everything in his power so we can leave.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that this saga will soon be over and we can finally head out of Port Phillip Bay, bound for the West Coast of Tasmania, but there are moments when we despair it will ever happen!

We are trying to stay positive. We have provisioned Take It Easy and our friends Ann and Greg have joined us on board, since they are accompanying us for part of our Tassie adventure. Let’s hope it all gets resolved and we head off during the weekend or as soon as the weather allows.

Hi Leanne – yes it has been a bit frustrating but we left early with the nicest of sunrises! We probably will hang around the bay after Queenscliff for a couple of days, waiting for the weather to get to Apollo Bay for a start. Will call you…

Well…You are almost ready for your planned voyage to the west coast of Tasmania. The anticipation for the trip makes the illusion that your time is going so slow that annoys you. Our time here is going to fast and the days seem really short. Make sure that everything works properly before you leave Port.(Even if it’s new equipment). Let me know when you depart from Port Phillip Bay. Take care my friend… 🙂

Hi HJ – you make us smile! Yes you are so right, time seems to have slowed right down while nothing much was happening. We will be testing everything for sure. We have a couple of days in the bay after everything gets sorted to do just that and also to wait for the right conditions to take off. We’ll keep you posted!

Having tried to leave Fremantle mid January and finding ourselves still here awaiting medical results this morning, we understand the frustration. Sometimes we are destined to wait…although that thought doesn’t really put one at ease when the conditions are ripe for sailing and one is missing good weather windows….

Hiya Trish! It is good to feel the boat moving again and the wind pushing us along. Off to Queenscliff for a few days, then early next week to Apollo Bay and on. After 4 weeks of waiting, we were itching to go!

Hi Pete and Deb – absolutely! Let’s hope it all works out at Queenscliff so we can go! We too once did the trip up, with my folks visiting from France. It gave us a glimpse of what it might be like to do this on our boat.

Thanks Caroline. It will be our first foray along the whole of the West Coast although we have sailed several times everywhere else. We love it around Tassie because it is wild and not crowded. We can have anchorages to ourselves!